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“Remember Yesterday” — my High School Mixtape

This week, the League was asked to list the songs that were forever looping in their tape deck back in high school.

I got my driver’s license back in the late 80’s, and on Friday nights you would find me cruising the streets in my VW Bug. I’m a firm believer that every teenager’s first car should be a VW Bug. When something goes wrong with a VW, you hop out and fix it. No lie, I once went three months using a long piece of twine as my accelerator cable.

My Bug was one sweet ride, and it rumbled loud–you knew when I was on your street–and since the car was so loud, the stereo had to be even louder. I had mixtapes for every occasion, but you can bet every one of them was filled with hair bands. The 80’s produced some amazing music, but for this article, I’m going to focus on my late night cruising tunes–you know the ones, those songs that you’d play while driving your date home, all the while hoping it would get you a little something to think about on your ride home.

I could probably write a full blog post on each and every one of these songs and the memories that they each bring to mind. It really surprised me at the wave of nostalgia that came over me while watching each of these videos after so many years. Well, without further delay, here’s the list.

Warrant – Heaven

Journey – Faithfully

Cheap Trick – The Flame

Motley Crue – Home Sweet Home

Skid Row – I Remember You

Bon Jovi – I’ll be There for You

Van Halen – Love Walks In

Bad Company – Feel Like Making Love

Scorpions – Still Loving You

Guns N Roses – Swet Child O’ Mine

White Lion – When the Children Cry

Brian Adams – Heaven

(You didn’t think I’d leave out my namesake did you?)

I thought this was going to be an embarrassing post, but after writing it up, I can honestly say that I’d still fire up any of these songs on a Friday night on my iPod–and hey, no pencil required! (10 points to the first person who understands that reference.)

All of these songs are great. Too bad I can no longer listen to that Bryan Adams song, though. It was my wedding song and conjures up all sorts of painful memories (I am divorced). Now Sweet Child of Mine on the other hand… That is my favorite song of all time and it never gets old. \m/

Songs can really have an impact–positive or negative. “Faithfully” was the theme song for my senior prom and I can’t listen to it without being transported back to that night. And the opening sequence of “Sweet Child oMine” is an unbeatable flashback device.

I hated Guns & Roses but I have to admit that Sweet Child O’ Mine has a killer opening riff . I remember Appetite for Destruction being THE album all the metal kids had and there being a bit furor about the alternate/banned cover.

I know I reeled in plenty of tapes guts with pencils back in the day. I also remember stuffing the open tab on the tape top with a wad of paper so that I could record over some tapes when I got tired of them too.

So many of these songs were recorded off of MTV onto my boombox back in the day, when I was too cheap to buy the singles and had plenty of my parents Hall & Oates tapes that needed to be recorded over…

Awww mate! My favourite compilation on the list by far. You and I clearly went to the same school of music. We’ve got 3 bands in common and the only reason we don’t have more is that I ran out of songs. Well played!

[…] mixtapes from around the League: 1. Brian at Cool and Collected talks about his high school mixtape 2. Tim over at Flashlights are Something to Eat also unearths one of his original high school […]